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Discussion<br />
25 3<br />
CORBA <strong>and</strong> IDL minimize dependencies between different components by hiding<br />
implementation details like operating system, network, location <strong>and</strong> programming<br />
language. This decoupling of clients <strong>and</strong> servers dramatically facilitates the<br />
development <strong>and</strong> maintenance of application programs. Even though this is obviously<br />
an improvement of the current state of affairs, it pushes the problem to another level.<br />
How can software components developed by independent groups interoperate? They<br />
can do so only if they share a set of common IDL definitions.<br />
OMG’s Domain Task Forces (DTF) provide formal frameworks for the adoption<br />
of st<strong>and</strong>ard interfaces for a specific application domain. At the OMG meeting in<br />
Dublin, in September 1997, a “Life Sciences Research” Domain Special Interest<br />
Group (DSIG) was formed. The DSIG represents a first step to the creation of a DTF.<br />
Its goal is to provide a forum for everybody who wants to get involved in the creation<br />
of st<strong>and</strong>ards for the life sciences area [16]. Life Sciences Research includes, but is<br />
not limited to, such fields as genomics, bioinformatics <strong>and</strong> computational chemistry.<br />
The st<strong>and</strong>ardization of interfaces will bring us eventually closer to the vision of<br />
componentry [ 13] where the functionality of today’s monolithic, closed systems is<br />
taken over by collections of object services. We will be able to mix <strong>and</strong> match<br />
components from different providers <strong>and</strong> find uses for applications that were never<br />
dreamed of by their developers. This intrinsic openness will make it significantly<br />
easier for a lone researcher to contribute to the bioinformatics projects of the future.<br />
Acknowledgments<br />
We wish to thank Jeroen Coppieters, Chris Dodge, Carsten Helgesen, Katarzyna<br />
Kruszewska, Philip Lijnzaad, Phil McNeil, Juha Muilu, Jeremy Parsons, Nicole<br />
Redaschi, Alan Robinson, Patricia Rodriguez-Tomé, Martin Senger, Timothy Slidel<br />
<strong>and</strong> Anastassia Spiridou for their involvement in various CORBA projects at EBI.<br />
The research into common CORBA interfaces on distributed data sources is<br />
supported by grant BIO4-CT96-0346 from the European Union (DG XII). The<br />
development of interfaces to distributed applications is supported by the<br />
BioSt<strong>and</strong>ards project, a consortium of EU (DG III), EMBL <strong>and</strong> 19 pharmaceutical<br />
companies.<br />
References<br />
1. Atkinson, M., Bancilhon, F., DeWitt, D., Dittrich, K. Maier, D., Zdonik, S. The<br />
Object-Oriented Database System Manifesto, First International Conference on<br />
Deductive <strong>and</strong> Object-Oriented <strong>Databases</strong>, 1989.<br />
2. Berners-Lee, T., Cailliau, R., Luotonen, A., Nielsen, H.F., <strong>and</strong> Secret, A. The<br />
World-Wide Web, Commun. ACM 37(8), 1994, pp. 76-82.<br />
3.<br />
Brockschmidt, K. Inside OLE, Second Edition, Microsoft Press, 1995.
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